The present invention relates to the use of the Internet, and in particular, to browsers or similar devices which present web page content to a user.
One of the most remarkable applications of technology we have seen in recent years is the World Wide Web, often known simply as the xe2x80x9cwebxe2x80x9d. Nonexistent only a few short years ago, it has suddenly burst upon us. People from schoolchildren to the elderly are learning to use the web, and finding an almost endless variety of information from the convenience of their homes or places of work. Businesses, government, organizations, and even ordinary individuals are making information available on the web, to the degree that it is now the expectation that anything worth knowing about is available somewhere on the web.
Although a great deal of information is available on the web, accessing this information can be difficult and time consuming, as any web user knows. Self-styled prophets of web technology have predicted no end of practical and beneficial uses of the web, if only problems of speed and ease of use can be solved. Accordingly, a great deal of research and development resources have been directed to these problems in recent years. While some progress has been made in the form of faster hardware, browsers which are more capable and easier to use, and so on, much improvement is still needed.
Nearly all web browsers follow the paradigm of a user visually examining web content presented on a display. I.e., typically a user sits in front of a computer display screen, and enters commands to view web pages presented by the user""s browser. A great deal of effort is expended in the formatting of web pages for proper visual appeal and ease of understanding. The browser may run in a window, so that the user may switch back and forth from the browser to some other tasks running in other windows. But it is usually expected that when the user is viewing a web page in the browser, his entire attention will be directed thereto, and other tasks will be foreclosed.
Some of the information available on the web is of a form which is updated on a relatively frequent basis, and which may be followed in xe2x80x9creal timexe2x80x9d, i.e., as the information is being generated. Examples of such information include up-to-the-minute market reports, coverage of sporting events, certain news events, etc. In order to follow such information, some web browsers support periodic polling of a specified web server at a specified polling interval, to determine whether information at a given web site has changed. While this is an improvement over requiring the user to manually update a web page at intervals, the manner of presentation is still less than optimal in many cases. The user may be busy with some other task (either at the computer workstation, or at a desk or somewhere in proximity to the computer). In order to obtain the updated information, the user must interrupt his other task, and view his browser. An unrecognized need exists for an alternative method of presenting such information to the user, which is less disruptive of other tasks in which the user may be
In accordance with the present invention, a web user may elect to have certain frequently changing web content audibly presented in the background while performing other tasks. Content may be audibly presented when it changes, or at user-specified intervals. Audible presentation does not require that any other task in which the user is engaged be interrupted.
In the preferred embodiment, audible background presentation is an optional feature in a web browser. The user selects web content by highlighting a portion or portions of one or more web pages. The user specifies any of various options for audible presentation, such as at fixed intervals, every time any content changes, or every time selected content changes. At the specified intervals or events, the selected web content is converted from text to speech, and audibly played over the computer""s speaker.
In an alternative embodiment, a web page has a viewable version and an audible version. The user selects the audible version, and the various parameters for audible presentation. The audible version is then played directly over the computer""s speaker, without the need to convert from text to speech.
The audible presentation of web content in the background as described herein enables a user to perform other tasks while listening to web content, much as one might perform other tasks while listening to a radio broadcast in the background. The audio presentation may be thought of as a second xe2x80x9cdimensionxe2x80x9d for receiving information, whereby a user can operate in both the video and audio dimensions independently, significantly improving user productivity, enjoyment or general enlightenment.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which: